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Texas health agency says rise in student vaccine exemptions

Posted: Feb 05 2015 09:12AM CST

Updated: Feb 05 2015 09:13AM CST

HOUSTON (AP) - The state's health department says more Texas parents are opting to not have their children vaccinated.

Although the overwhelming majority of Texas students have received vaccine shots, the state agency reports more than 38,000 were exempted from required vaccinations in the 2013-2014 school year. That's tripled in the last six years from an estimated 10,400 students in 2007-2008.

The Houston Chronicle (http://bit.ly/1zBY56j ) reports parents are allowed under a law to exempt their child from Texas immunization requirements, including one that protects against measles, which is now spreading in the U.S.

Federal officials say more than 100 measles cases in multiple states have been linked to people who visited or worked in December at Disneyland in California, or were exposed to infected people who went there.